Pirate Bay four hit roadblock in appeal

Swedish court rules that judge was not biased

COLOGNE, Germany -- The four men convicted for operating file-sharing site the Pirate Bay suffered a further setback this week when they failed to get the case thrown out due to alleged bias by the sentencing judge.

Stockholm's district court rejected claims by Pirate Bay lawyers that its judge Tomas Norstrom was biased in the original case because he was a member of several groups that lobby for the rights of copyright holders. The district court said Norstrom joined the associations to keep abreast of copyright issues and that it found no evidence of bias.